Waiting for the new year will give titles added visibility to gamers.

The "holiday season" window that generally runs from September through November every year always sees more than its fair share of big name video game releases. But in recent weeks, a number of publishers have delayed their anticipated titles into the early part of next year, rather than having them face what's sure to be another overcrowded marketplace at the end of 2012.

First, Irrational Games announced that long-awaited BioShock Infinite would hit stores next February, rather than its originally planned October 16 release date. Then Crystal Dynamics announced last week that the latest reboot of the venerable Tomb Raider franchise would be hitting in the first quarter of 2013. Finally, just today, Sega announced that its Alien: Colonial Marines game will be released on February 12, 2013 rather than the previously planned "Fall 2012" window (the new date doesn't apply to the planned Wii U version, which is still up in the air at this point).

It's not like these delays will leave the holiday game shelves barren. Plenty of highly anticipated games are still planted firmly in the busy three-month span, including the newest entries in the Assassin's Creed, Borderlands, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises (and probably some games that aren't sequels, but who cares about them?). The end-of-year glut of major releases is the obvious result of a flood of extra holiday gift dollars pouring into the game market during the holiday season. After all, would you rather release a game during a month when only serious gamers are going to be looking to buy it, or during a month when those gamers' non-playing friends and relatives are also looking to spend some extra money in the sector.

But there's some benefit to pushing away from the overcrowded holiday shelf as well. Highly anticipated titles with a well known franchise name will probably sell well regardless of when they're released (see this March's launch of Mass Effect 3) while lesser-known franchises can get some elbow room to carve out a niche during the less-crowded months of the year (see the NPD chart-topping performance of April's Prototype 2, a game that would likely be lost in the holiday glut). In either case, the developers will surely benefit from having a few more months of time to add that final coat of polish.

There's been barely a word about the progress of The Last Guardian since this brief glimpse from 2009.

Anyone who has followed the saga of games like Duke Nukem Forever, though, can tell you that there's a limit to how many times a game can be delayed before attentive gamers begin to wonder what's going on behind the scenes. Sega's Aliens: Colonial Marines was first announced on a Game Informer cover in February 2008, and it seems to get further and further from release with each passing E3 demonstration. Other titles, like Sony's The Last Guardian or Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil 2 can frustrate gamers with brief announcements followed by years of virtual radio silence, during which gamers either forget about them or start to assume they'll never actually be finished.

Then there are the titles that seem eager to push themselves on the gaming public well before they're ready for release. The marketing machine is already in high gear for games like SimCity, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Last of Us, Crysis 3, and Metro: Last Light, even though none of them will see release before 2012 is out. The long lead time can be a marketing boon if the game can manage to stay in the headlines during a long run-up, but publishers also risk burning out player interest before they can cash in with actual sales.

For the average gamer with a stack of unplayed games sitting in their backlog, having fewer games to buy during the busy holiday season might come as something of an odd relief. Then again, a crowded holiday season usually means an even more crowded bargain bin during the lean spring and summer months. These days, it looks like there are going to be more and more new releases trying to attract your gaming dollars well past the holidays. Better save up those gift cards.

32 Reader Comments

I would think that many games would benefit from the "When it's done" release date rather than being shoehorned into a holiday release schedule that would probably be overshadowed by the launch of the latest Call of Duty clone.

It's really no longer a matter of stamping out bugs as Nintendo used to delay their games for, but it's more a matter of letting ideas or mechanics have time to develop fully. I'm sure that a bit more development time would help out a lot of games that get shoved out the door with half-hearted implementations of an idea that may have been cool on paper, but got pulled out of the oven too early.

I would think that many games would benefit from the "When it's done" release date rather than being shoehorned into a holiday release schedule that would probably be overshadowed by the launch of the latest Call of Duty clone.

It's really no longer a matter of stamping out bugs as Nintendo used to delay their games for, but it's more a matter of letting ideas or mechanics have time to develop fully. I'm sure that a bit more development time would help out a lot of games that get shoved out the door with half-hearted implementations of an idea that may have been cool on paper, but got pulled out of the oven too early.

+1 This.

Finish the game, please? Tired of half-baked games.Obviously this is the consumer's point of view but still. Aware that there are other forces at work on game development, but I have a feeling a better more fully developed and polished game would draw more money, in a typical situation.

I would think that many games would benefit from the "When it's done" release date rather than being shoehorned into a holiday release schedule that would probably be overshadowed by the launch of the latest Call of Duty clone.

It's really no longer a matter of stamping out bugs as Nintendo used to delay their games for, but it's more a matter of letting ideas or mechanics have time to develop fully. I'm sure that a bit more development time would help out a lot of games that get shoved out the door with half-hearted implementations of an idea that may have been cool on paper, but got pulled out of the oven too early.

Seconded also. I would prefer a finish product. Alternatively, cant you hold off the advertising a bit? 5 years for Marines is killing me, I need another good scary game since Amnesia, hopefully it will be close.

Personally, I would just love it if studios would be honest when they've run into a snag or are considering canceling a sequel. Mirrors Edge 2, Beyond Good and Evil 2... they've supposedly been in production for years, but never with any indication that progress is being made or that they're even interested in producing it.

This, of course, is a symptom of the mentality their publicists have that they can just string us along with promise after promise with no commitment to follow up. This has to stop.

I prefer a flood of announcements and hype leading up to a nearly-finished product rather than the trickle of information continuously for three years before a game comes out. Get people excited around the time when they can play the game (closed/open beta and later) rather than while the game's in early concept stages, please.

[kyle said]including the newest entries in the Assassin's Creed, Borderlands, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises (and probably some games that aren't sequels, but who cares about them?).[end of what kyle said] (btw, how do you quote the author?)

A comment like this really won't help getting new games and ideas out there.

[kyle said]including the newest entries in the Assassin's Creed, Borderlands, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises (and probably some games that aren't sequels, but who cares about them?).[end of what kyle said] (btw, how do you quote the author?)

A comment like this really won't help getting new games and ideas out there.

He was obviously joking about the amount of sequels coming out next year... Most of the hype/games that the general public is going to buy en mass are sequels. I'm sure Kyle would love some variety in the gaming world as much if not more than you. Can you imagine playing hundreds of games every year that are essentially the same thing rehashed over and over again?

At least with the delay of PC games, we generally get plenty of time to find out if there any "fun" features we'd rather not deal with, and depending on the company, maybe get resolved. Sometimes it is nice to know I'll have extra money that wasn't spent on online required or limited activation games.

I'm amazed at how close they've come to realizing the games season is overcrowded and yet missing the point entirely. The lesson here isn't "Fall and Winter are overcrowded so we should all release in Febuary!"

They should be releasing more spread out over the whole damn YEAR! (You know, when there are months and months with no decent games in the late Spring and Early Summer?)

I'm amazed at how close they've come to realizing the games season is overcrowded and yet missing the point entirely. The lesson here isn't "Fall and Winter are overcrowded so we should all release in Febuary!"

They should be releasing more spread out over the whole damn YEAR! (You know, when there are months and months with no decent games in the late Spring and Early Summer?)

No kidding. At this point aren't most gamers adults with their own checking accounts? People who have less free time around the holidays.

Sounds like a smart decision. Don't compete with the AAA titles with massive marketing budgets. Take a few extra months to actually finish the game.

@Snowghost: You can't actually quote the author, but you can fake it:{quote="insert person's name here"} copy & paste text from article in here...... then finish it off with {/quote}Remember to use square brackets [ ] instead of curly braces { } though! If I typed it correctly, the system would parse & hide it, so it wouldn't be any help.

I would like to see them make a sequel to Mirror's Edge, it would probably make for a good Kinect game.

Yikes, no. The awesomeness and fun of Mirror's Edge was in its incredibly precise and easy-to-learn, hard-to-master controls. Precision is not something which motion gaming is known for :-( ... And yes, DICE needs to get cracking on Mirror's Edge 2, post-haste!

On the point of early reveals, Microsoft had a good idea in one of their E3 conferences when "everything shown here is releasing this year," but it was also a let-down because all of the games were already known and well documented. Developers need to keep their mouths shut and not reveal things until they're well on the way to completion. The wait for Final Fantasy XIII Versus is getting to be of DNF proportions (we're entering year 7 now?!), while SquareEnix continues pushing unwanted sequels at us. Meanwhile, the fine folks over at Ubisoft are trying to blackmail us, saying they'll create Beyond Good & Evil 2 if the (buggy) BG&E remaster sells well... then, if Rayman Origins sells well, which they pitted against their own Assassin's Creed holiday juggernaut... all while Michel Ancel pouts about game hardware and teases us with tech demos. All this sort of nonsense only transforms the customer's hopeful enthusiasm into bitter resentment.

Either make a game or don't, and don't do a huge reveal until it is well along and confirmed for release. And yes, spread out the releases! Remember when Metal Gear Solid 4 released worldwide in June? That was fantastic! Do it more often!

i heard the reason most of those publishers pushed the release date to early 2013 is because Rockstar is releasing GTA5 this holiday season and no one wants to go head to head with that title at christmas

I would think that many games would benefit from the "When it's done" release date rather than being shoehorned into a holiday release schedule that would probably be overshadowed by the launch of the latest Call of Duty clone.

It's really no longer a matter of stamping out bugs as Nintendo used to delay their games for, but it's more a matter of letting ideas or mechanics have time to develop fully. I'm sure that a bit more development time would help out a lot of games that get shoved out the door with half-hearted implementations of an idea that may have been cool on paper, but got pulled out of the oven too early.

+1 This.

Finish the game, please? Tired of half-baked games.Obviously this is the consumer's point of view but still. Aware that there are other forces at work on game development, but I have a feeling a better more fully developed and polished game would draw more money, in a typical situation.

Just my thoughts on this.

Now if only angel investors, and publishers for video games would read your comment. The standard for quality has been set pretty high now, and I think personally that unless it's a really well known franchise, your only chance of making a profit is to develop a fully fleshed out idea, no matter how small it is.

Shame that all of those non-sequel games couldn't get a platform like a popular tech website to promote themselves on, or perhaps a tech website willing to focus on the gems that get ignored by the wider marketing hype...

After all, would you rather release a game during a month when only serious gamers are going to be looking to buy it, or during a month when those gamers' non-playing friends and relatives are also looking to spend some extra money in the sector.

Hate to be a pedant, but pet peeve of mine: you're asking a question. That should be a question mark. "Would you rather A, or B?"

It would be very good for gamers if titles were more spread out over the year, instead of cramming all the good titles in one season. I figure it would be better for game companies too, since they would have less competition from other releases.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.